Don't make me frog it. You won't like me when I frog it.

Suddenly it’s Wednesday and I still haven’t updated my blog! I can’t blame it all on recovering from the Briar Patch craft fair on Saturday, although I was exhausted after spending the day chatting away with both customers and fellow stallholders. A steady stream of compliments more than made up for the slow sales, and it was a fantastic opportunity to network with other creative people locally. There’s not a lot of crochet at this particular craft fair, and what there is is mostly hats and scarves, so my stuff really stood out. I was lucky to be given an extra table to fill at no additional cost due to a last minute reshuffle by the organiser!

All the stallholders said they had a slow day, and I had the advantage of a great spot right by the entrance so I probably did better than some. Unfortunately the weather put people off leaving the house, as we had everything from hailstones, torrential rain, brilliant sunshine and rainbows, all in one morning! Every time I looked up the sky was a different colour!

It’s been a good year already for rainbows already. On Thursday when I went to my Knit For Victory group at the Redoubt Fortress I managed to snap a few pics on my phone.

Anyway, back to the crochet. I finished my heart bunting (and sold a set at the fair!)

This was one of three colourways I made. Not easy to get it all in a picture!

Much admired (but sadly not sold) were my owl lavender and lemongrass sachets. I made them out of an old lambswool jumper that I felted in the washing machine (deliberately I hasten to add! It was donated by my Dad when it was past its best) and I hand appliqued the features.

I made five of these little guys. I’m sort of glad I didn’t have to part with them!

Although the fair wasn’t a huge success I did make a profit, and I’ve booked a table at the next one in April. It was worth going to meet the lovely people who attended and I really did enjoy myself. The free tea and coffee certainly helped, and Pamela, who organises the whole event, always makes everyone feel so welcome! I swapped email addresses with some new people, and one lady even asked me to teach her how to crochet! I’ll let you know if anything comes of it, and if she survives my teaching methods!

And now for some updates…

I forgot to post a picture of my favourite work in progress last week, my stripy blanket (for pattern see here). I’m at about row 48.

I love my stripy crochet!

And I’ve started another blanket (number 3 when you include the knitted squares I’m doing too!) using this pattern and Stylecraft Special Aran in Lavender, Cream, Aster and Aspen. I only stated yesterday and this is how far I’ve got already!

WIP: Crochet ripple blanket worked in the round

I finished my first pair of socks for the year. I’m aiming to knit at least one pair a month, but this first pair aren’t brilliant, and I’m unlikely to ever wear them out of the house. The tension was too loose, but they are quite comfy and slouchy!

This is the “good” side.

Also the heel was a bit of a disaster. I didn’t get on very well with the wrapped stitches, so for the next pair I used this method of doing a short row heel that doesn’t involve any wrapped stitches. It was a total revelation! Combined with a smaller size set of needles, it completely transformed my dodgy, uneven sock knitting to comfortably adequate!

Love the self striping yarn and new Knit-Pro needles too!

Now this is where I’d normally link up to Handmade Monday, but I’ve missed the boat on that this week! So I think I’ll give some other link parties a go. I’m new at this so be patient (and please let me know if I’m doing this wrong!)

Love your felted owl! He’s really lovely. I’m giving the fairs a miss this year. Too much heart break over poor sales has put me off. Having said that the earlier fairs are usually the quieter ones so hopefully it’ll pick up for you.